Foot stuck in clipless pedals

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JBGooner

Über Member
Getting back into cycling after a decade or so break and treating myself to a nice bike I thought would upgrade to clipless pedals. I got the Shimano 530s and a pair of Vittoria MTB shoes and on my first attempt after a few minutes in the park I fell over. D'oh! This happens to everyone I thought, so after dusting myself down I tried again and fell over again. The second time my foot was still stuck to the pedals as I was lying on the path and I had to take my foot out of the shoe before levering the shoe off the pedal.
After a couple of weeks I tried again, being careful to clip in only one foot at a time. Most of the time this was successful and I thought I was really going to enjoy this clipping in business but then my foot got stuck and only got unclipped after a good deal with to-ing and fro-ing. This happened with both feet. A lot of the time I would clip and unclip easily but sometimes the shoe just jammed on and I don't think I was doing anything differently.
Does anyone know whats going on here? A duff pair of trainers and/or pedals?
 
Adjust the tension at the pedal, it sounds like it's too tight to me.

If that doesn't help, (as you say it releases fine sometimes), then perhaps you have got a dicky mechanism, but it'd be unusual IME.

Who fitted the cleats and you sure they are correctly postioned, just a thought but may have no significance.

:welcome:to CC by the way :thumbsup:
 
my foot was still stuck to the pedals as I was lying on the path and I had to take my foot out of the shoe before levering the shoe off the pedal.

my foot got stuck and only got unclipped after a good deal with to-ing and fro-ing. This happened with both feet.

Don't want to sound patronising, but you are twisting your heel away from the bike to unclip rather than trying brute force aren't you?
 
OP
OP
JBGooner

JBGooner

Über Member
Adjust the tension at the pedal, it sounds like it's too tight to me.

If that doesn't help, (as you say it releases fin some times), then perhaps you have got a dicky mechanism, but it'd be unusual IME.

Who fitted the cleats and you sure they are correctly postioned, just a thought but may have no significance.

:welcome:to CC by the way :thumbsup:

Cheers!

I didn't even know tension on the pedals could be adjusted, they were fitted at the shop :blush: . Would you know how to go about adjusting it? (altho. I guess with a common pedal like that, should be online somewhere.)

I fitted the cleats myself and I recall that they might be closer to one side than the other, I wonder if that had anything to do with it. Another thought was that I was pedalling around with the pedals in normal trainers for a while I wonder if I might have damaged them.
 
Back the tension right off then back onto the first notch/click (very small Allen key)
If your cleats are recessed, make sure there's enough clearance to twist your foot out, if the front of the cleat is too close to the side of the recess you can clip in but a beggar to get out.
 

SimonJKH

Blue collar cyclist
Location
Ipswich
Always unclip when your foot is at the lowest point. After a couple of falls myself, I've learnt this pretty well.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
I found I wasn't adjusting both sides of the double sided pedals at the same rate, so sometimes I'd slip out and other times I'd struggle to get free!
Ha ha - that reminds me of something that happened earlier this year...

I had put new SPD pedals on my bike before heading up to Lancaster for Ajay's South Lakes forum ride. We set off and all was well until we came to a steep little climb on which I got distanced. Eventually, I decided that I'd be quicker walking and went to dismount but my right foot was stuck! I almost toppled to the right but managed to lean to the left and get my other foot down.

I staggered up the hill with my right foot still stuck in the pedal*** until the gradient eased and I could start riding again. I eventually caught up with Ajay and the other riders and asked Ajay to take hold of my heel and unclip my foot for me.

Once Ajay had got my foot out of the pedal, I was able to lower the tension to its minimum level, which is how I always like to set it.

The pedals are double-sided with a release tension screw for each side. It turned out that I had only slackened off 3 of the 4 screws so one side of the right-hand pedal was way too tight. The first few times I'd clipped in and out, I'd randomly found the slack side, but then I got stuck on the tight side.


*** I told this story to a friend and he asked me why I didn't just take my foot out of the shoe and unclip it myself ... The truth is - it never occurred to me to do that - D'oh! :wacko:
 

Saluki

World class procrastinator
My husband has brand new pedals and he took them out for a ride today (the bike went too obviously) and he hadn't tweaked the screws at all. We got to a busy set of traffic lights where I stopped and put a foot down. Hubby arrived just after me and promptly fell off. Bike is OK, which is a good thing as he only collected it from our LBS half an hour earlier. A couple of nice pensioners came along to help. I was useless as I got a fit of the giggles. Tensioning screws are now all loosened off.
 

jonny jeez

Legendary Member
sounds like it could be a loose cleat. check all the screws and washers are fitted correctly. My only clipless moment was as a result of a loose cleat (actually as the result of fitting one washer upside down and thus not allowing the cleat to tighten)
 
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